Moving from recognising to responding to oral health needs in eating disorders: matters arising from Gidlund et al., 2025
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Gidlund and colleagues’ recent study highlights the profound unmet dental care needs of people with eating disorders, extending earlier work that showed oral health can remain a visible scar long after illness. Their findings reveal how shame, stigma, and systemic barriers prevent timely care, while oral rehabilitation can play a vital role in restoring dignity, hope, and identity. The study strengthens the case for viewing dental complications not as secondary impacts of eating disorders, but as core symptoms that demand timely, evidence-based, and compassionate care. Meeting this challenge requires a shift from recognition to response. This includes changes to clinical practice, where harm-reduction approaches and sensitive communication are essential; to health systems and policy, where equitable access and interdisciplinary pathways must be established; and within research, where coproduced interventions and longitudinal studies can provide the evidence base that is currently lacking. Oral health should no longer be treated as an afterthought in eating disorder care but recognised as an integral part of recovery. A new study by Gidlund and colleagues shows that people with eating disorders often struggle to get the dental care they need. Problems such as tooth erosion, decay, and pain are not just long-term side effects. They can be understood as symptoms of eating disorders that deserve care during illness as well as in recovery. The study found that shame, stigma, and inaccessible healthcare systems often stop people from getting timely treatment, even though restoring oral health can make a big difference to confidence, dignity, and hope. This means change is needed. Dentists should be able to offer harm-reduction treatments and compassionate communication; health services should make dental care affordable and better joined-up with eating disorder services; and research should test new approaches designed with input from people who have lived experience. Oral health should be treated as an essential part of recovery from an eating disorder, not as an afterthought.
Source: Journal of Eating Disorders
Author: James Downs
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,190
OpenAlex ID: W7116693316